The Relations of Science and Religion: The Morse Lecture, 1880Calderwood, Henry
Religion
The Relations of Science and Religion: The Morse Lecture, 1880
Calderwood, Henry
Religion and science
the miraculous does not come within the boundaries of science. This is
self-evident, and on this footing theology has no account to make of
what is only a semblance of opposition, involving no real conflict.
Creation, for example, can not come within the compass of observational
science; but creation may nevertheless be a rational conception in
dealing with a purely rational problem, which does not at all belong to
physical science. In the same manner it appears that the whole series
of our Lord's miracles are outside the area of science, which, as it has
nothing of authority to advance against them, has not even a basis on
which to offer any testimony concerning their possibility.
One topic more requires to be briefly considered as constituting an
essential of religious thought, namely the acknowledgment of divine
interposition for the answer of PRAYER. Our question is, How this
conception of divine answer to prayer stands related to scientific
thought concerning the government of the world by fixed law? If the laws
of nature are fixed, how can the government of the world allow for
fulfilment of human desire as expressed in supplication? The question to
be discussed has two sides, the one concerned with the conditions on
which an answer to prayer is expected; the other with the exact
significance of the scientific conception of the government of the world
by fixed law. If there be a rational basis for prayer as encouraged by
the teaching of Scripture, there can be no such dilemma as would be
implied in supposing that law is fixed yet not fixed, or that law is
unchangeable in all cases save in the history of the man of prayer, in
whose behalf the laws of nature are liable to be held in check. There
may be among Christian men considerable diversity in the clearness of
apprehension with which they grasp the meaning of the divine promise to
answer prayer; but there is no one taught by the Scriptures as to the
privilege of prayer, who thinks of it as implying that the laws of the
universe are liable to be held in suspension because the desires of his
heart are rising to God in humble, earnest supplication. The man trained
to recognize this truth affecting God's government that "He maketh His
sun to rise on the evil and on the good; and sendeth rain on the just,
and on the unjust," does not readily fall into the mistake of supposing
that all the laws of the universe are at His bidding, because of the
divine encouragement to prayer. The Christian prays only under divine
warrant, and this does not convey any such suggestion.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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